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Saint Louis News - "All the news that is Saint Louis"
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TWA Pilots Reach Agreements With TWA Airlines LLC ST. LOUIS, (PRNewswire), APRIL 4, 2001 - TWA pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), have reached agreements with TWA Airlines LLC, the wholly owned American Airlines subsidiary that will operate as the successor to TWA. The agreements include amendments to the Scope, Benefits and Successorship provisions of the pilots' Collective Bargaining Agreement as required by American's asset purchase agreement with TWA. In a letter to American Chairman and CEO Donald J. Carty, Captain Robert A. Pastore said the pilots wanted "to ensure a prompt closing" of American's acquisition of TWA, noting their strong support for the acquisition. Pastore is chairman of the TWA ALPA Master Executive Council. In the letter, Captain Pastore cited commitments made by Mr. Carty in saying that the pilots "expect issues related to the integration of our pilots into the American system will be fairly resolved with our participation." ALPA and its pilot members pledged their cooperation for a smooth integration and a commitment to the successful operation of TWA Airlines LLC, at a superior level. Under the new contract, ALPA will continue as the pilots' union and bargaining agent when TWA Airlines LLC begins operating. The full text of the letter to Mr. Carty from ALPA, copies of which were also sent to TWA President and CEO William Compton, Missouri Sens. Kit Bond and Jean Carnahan, Rep. Richard Gephardt, and Missouri Gov. Bob Holden, follows: "The pilots of TWA, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, International, have been strong supporters of American's acquisition of TWA. That support arises from the commitments you made along with the conviction that the acquisition is the best next step in TWA's long and distinguished history. You have described TWA as a "perfect fit." We share that spirit and hope that it will guide the integration of TWA and American.In January, Trans World Airlines, Inc. announced that it had reached an agreement with American Airlines, Inc., a subsidiary of AMR Corporation, in which American will acquire substantially all of TWA's assets following its filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. See American Airlines Announces TWA Buyout.  Nixon Blasts Section of Federal Law Allowing Patients' Medical Information to be Used for Marketing JEFFERSON CITY, (SLFP.com), APRIL 1, 2001 - Saying that the privacy rights of medical patients far exceed any right of health care providers to sell patient information for marketing purposes, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon said in a release that he was extremely concerned about new language included in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services standards that would permit patient records to be bought and sold without the patient's consent or knowledge. Nixon and 35 other Attorneys General from around the country sent a letter Thursday (March 29) to Tommy Thompson, Secretary of HHS, expressing their "grave concerns" over new language inserted by HHS into Privacy Regulation Establishing Standards to Protect Patients' Medical Records under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. "HHS has created an Orwellian situation where the very section intended to protect patient privacy is instead creating a broad avenue for records to be used as a marketing commodity," Nixon said. "This new marketing section - which was never provided by HHS for public comment as part of the proposed rule - needs to be taken out. HHS needs to stop heeding the entreaties of drug manufacturers, chain drug stores and HMOs and start asserting the privacy rights of medical patients." The new language in Section 164.514(e) states: However, the final rule permits an alternative arrangement: the covered entity can engage in health-related marketing on behalf of a third-party, presumably for a fee. Moreover, the covered entity could retain another party, through a business associate relationship, to conduct the actual health-related marketing, such as mailings or telemarketing, under the covered entity's name. Nixon and the other Attorneys General told Secretary Thompson that: Thus, while the entire thrust of the privacy rule is to protect patients' medical records, the marketing section wipes out that protection for the most egregious of purposes: disclosure and use of a patient's protected medical records for solicitations, including telemarketing solicitations, to the patient without the patient's knowledge or approval... ...We believe that with the inclusion of the marketing section, the privacy rule indeed gives the public a false assurance of privacy. We think the public will be outraged once they understand that HHS confers protection for their medical records with one hand and eliminates that protection with the other. The marketing section permits a covered entity (either on its own behalf or on behalf of a third-party who is permitted to pay the covered entity) or a covered entity's business associate to use and disclose all of a patient's "protected" medical information, which could include information about diagnoses, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, mental health treatments and confidential communications. The marketing section is broad enough to permit marketing to children using the children's protected medical information... ...(W)e urge the immediate deletion of the portion of Section 164.514(e) that permits the use of protected health information for marketing purposes unless the individual has previously given his/her affirmative, informed consent. Without this change, we will be left with a system in which there is less protection for an individual's sensitive medical information than for his/her video rental records. In addition to deleting the marketing section, the Attorneys General also urged Secretary Thompson not to delay the effective date of the regulations that do protect patient privacy past April 14, 2001.
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